Brazil’s HIV advocates say they predicted USAID funding cuts: ‘We would see the trends’

At the Aids 2026 conference, Brazilian advocates said health systems need to be more independent from foreign funding

HIV advocates from Brazil, whose health system operates independently from foreign aid, say they predicted a dramatic reduction in donor funding for HIV and wish other countries had prioritized independence sooner.

While the dissolution of USAID might “feel like a rupture”, it’s something advocates at the Brazilian HIV NGO Gestos have seen coming for a long time, Juliana Cesar, Gestos’s political liaison coordinator, said during a session at the Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro.